These findings have been reported in a U.S. Treasury Dept. report which was published on August 4. The report focuses on current results of the $75 billion-dollar government-sponsored "Making Affordable Loan Modification Program."
Treasury officials met last week with executives from some of the United States' largest lending institutions. During the meeting, officials were instructed by the Treasury to step up their efforts to get more borrowers involved in the program. A goal of 500,000 participants by November 1 of this year was given to the lenders.
With this goal in mind, lending institutions will need to more than double their numbers in order to meet the November 1 deadline.
To date, lenders have made just over 400,000 loan modification offer to borrowers and over 235,000 "trial" modifications have begun. These efforts equate to just nine percent of the over 2.5 million delinquent mortgages which are considered eligible for the program.
The U.S. Treasury Dept. seeks to assist a total of three to four million home owners within the next 3 years. Additional performance measures will be developed regarding the level of customer service participants receive, for example the length of time a borrower waits to hear back regarding the results of an application.
The largest bank having the greatest number of eligible participants fared the worst in the findings of the report. Bank of America currently has nearly 800,000 delinquent borrowers which would be eligible to apply for the government program. To date, thirteen percent were offered a loan modification while four percent started trial loan modifications. B of A's numbers include loans serviced by Countrywide Home Loans.
Here is how other large loan servicers fared in the report:
-J.P. Morgan Chase: 20% of eligible borrowers began trial loan modifications.
-Saxon Mortgage Services: 25%
-Wells Fargo: 6%
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